President Obama wants America to have one million electric vehicles (EVs) on the road in four years (2015). Based on the latest sales data for the Chevrolet Volt - the government-backed, green automotive Hail Mary from Detroit - Obama's goal isn't going to be met.
In fact, it's not even going to be close. What it will be is a very long time before anything remotely approaching a million Volts will be tooling around on U.S. roads.
While GM sales overall were up 46 percent, Volt sales fell from 321 in January to 281 in February, a 12 percent decrease. At 281 monthly sales, it will take more than 3,558 months, or nearly 297 years.
The outlook is even worse for Nissan's widely heralded Leaf. The Japanese firm sold just 67 Leafs (Leaves?) in February, compared to 87 in January, for a 23 percent decrease. At that rate, there won't be a million EVs on the road for 1,243 years.
An irreverant friend (who should remain anonymous) suggests that these poor sales figures are best explained by the fact customers were prevented from going to Chevrolet and Nissan showrooms by those global warming-induced blizzards, tornadoes and floods, especially in the Midwest and South.
For more on this, check this out from Autobloggreen.
Geez, maybe I shouldn't be talking like this. Obama might extend that Obamacare individual mandate to include an EVmandate. For public health purposes, of course!